Page 85 - Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales , A

"Young man," said he, "you are welcome! I am proud to show hospitality to so heroic a youth. Do me the
favor to drink the contents of this goblet. It is brimming over, as you see, with delicious wine, such as I
bestow only on those who are worthy of it! None is more worthy to quaff it than yourself!"

So saying, King AEgeus took the golden goblet from the table, and was about to offer it to Theseus. But,
partly through his infirmities, and partly because it seemed so sad a thing to take away this young man's life,
however wicked he might be, and partly, no doubt, because his heart was wiser than his head, and quaked
within him at the thought of what he was going to do,--for all these reasons, the king's hand trembled so much
that a great deal of the wine slopped over. In order to strengthen his purpose, and fearing lest the whole of the
precious poison should be wasted, one of his nephews now whispered to him,--

"Has your Majesty any doubt of this stranger's guilt? There is the very sword with which he meant to slay
you. How sharp, and bright, and terrible it is! Quick!--let him taste the wine; or perhaps he may do the deed
even yet."

At these words, AEgeus drove every thought and feeling out of his breast, except the one idea of how justly
the young man deserved to be put to death. He sat erect on his throne, and held out the goblet of wine with a
steady hand, and bent on Theseus a frown of kingly severity; for, after all, he had too noble a spirit to murder
even a treacherous enemy with a deceitful smile upon his face.

"Drink!" said he, in the stern tone with which he was wont to condemn a criminal to be beheaded. "You have
well deserved of me such wine as this!"

Theseus held out his hand to take the wine. But, before he touched it, King AEgeus trembled again. His eyes
had fallen on the gold-hilted sword that hung at the young man's side. He drew back the goblet.

"That sword!" he cried; "how came you by it?"

"It was my father's sword," replied Theseus, with a tremulous voice. "These were his sandals. My dear mother
(her name is AEthra) told me his story while I was yet a little child. But it is only a month since I grew strong
enough to lift the heavy stone, and take the sword and sandals from beneath it, and come to Athens to seek my
father."

"My son! my son!" cried King AEgeus, flinging away the fatal goblet, and tottering down from the throne to
fall into the arms of Theseus. "Yes, these are AEthra's eyes. It is my son."

I have quite forgotten what became of the king's nephews. But when the wicked Medea saw this new turn of
affairs, she hurried out of the room, and going to her private chamber, lost no time in setting her enchantments
at work. In a few moments, she heard a great noise of hissing snakes outside of the chamber window; and,
behold! there was her fiery chariot, and four huge winged serpents, wriggling and twisting in the air,
flourishing their tails higher than the top of the palace, and all ready to set off on an aerial journey. Medea
stayed only long enough to take her son with her, and to steal the crown jewels, together with the king's best
robes, and whatever other valuable things she could lay hands on; and getting into the chariot, she whipped up
the snakes, and ascended high over the city.

The king, hearing the hiss of the serpents, scrambled as fast as he could to the window, and bawled out to the
abominable enchantress never to come back. The whole people of Athens, too, who had run out of doors to
see this wonderful spectacle, set up a shout of joy at the prospect of getting rid of her. Medea, almost bursting
with rage, uttered precisely such a hiss as one of her own snakes, only ten times more venomous and spiteful;
and glaring fiercely out of the blaze of the chariot, she shook her hands over the multitude below, as if she
were scattering a million of curses among them. In so doing, however, she unintentionally let fall about five
hundred diamonds of the first water, together with a thousand great pearls, and two thousand emeralds, rubies,